Learjet said:

Text does change for me when I look away then back, as does digital clock time.

Do you guys get a mixture of different intelligences in dream characters? Some of the people in my dreams have no brain when confronted, they are just space fillers. If I question them they just act dumb, where others are more verbal and some highly intelligent.

Okay, that's at least two confirmations of changing text…which was what I have encountered in most of the books I've read, and counter to my own experiences. I've seen signs in my dream in a certain place, will experience some other scenes, and come back to that area and the text is still the same. Weird!

Characters in my normal dreams are classified into two types. Main characters and extras. The extras are just there, they may be doing something but they are like "people on the street" vs the main characters who might be like the person walking with you through the street.

Same with objects, even, at least in the case of normal dreams. The object or building that is key or important in the dream is a bit more substantive whereas the others are more cardboardy.

And speaking of which, I have recorded a few different levels of dream vividness. At the lower end are the very flat (what I call cardboardy) types where things and people are rather non-descript. My focus in the dream is often quite "tunnel-like" These are often ones where it's like I'm an observer rather than a participant in the dream.

Higher up the scale are the full three-dimensional ones which can also have a tunnel-like focus. The rest of the dreamspace is more vivid than the lower level, but I see more straight ahead.

Another level up are ones I have that are very three-dimensional, very vivid, and with full peripheral vision where the entire scene is clear. These are the ones that are just below lucid.

Learjet said:

…but the "air" around me seemed to be more dense, somewhere between the density of air and water, going by what it felt like when I waved my arms around. 

I've had this sensation, well not often but at more than rarely in normal dreams as well. In all of those, however, I had sight. They have always been the very vivid type and usually I'm above the scene by several meters, like in a pool of air with normal life at the bottom and me at the top surface.

It is not a defined pool, though, more like a limitless expanse (no water, just air thick enough for me to be buoyant) To get around, I paddle with my arms, pulling myself through the air.

Real sounds "invading" the dream. I've had phones ring and instead of waking me, they become part of the dream, same with traffic and horns. Alarm clocks have done that but have become dream-alarm-clocks and I will wake up in the dream (but still be dreaming) and start to go about my "getting up" routine. Usually at some point in that process I will wake up fully.

It's these types of things that made for interesting reflection as far as my being able to recognize a dream from real life.

One of the triggers that never worked for me was that every time you looked at your watch you should go through a check and ask yourself if you are awake or not. Trouble is that the dreams with enough detail for there to be a watch in were usually vivid enough that I failed the test…looking around in the dream I could see nothing that indicated I _was_ dreaming. So other methods became necessary…

Hmmm…my text will change as well. However, you did say "signs." If they are a trade-marked image like a Coke sign or McDonald's sign or whatever, those typically remain constant. Are those the type of signs that you are talking about or more like street signs or such?

Sign sign everywhere a sign…Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind…Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign? :)

Any type of sign, trade-marked ones don't show up much, but like a sign on a building declaring it to be such and such place (made up, even) Street signs. Text in a book (titles and the actual contents). etc

For my triggers I started with the look at your watch one, look, look away, look back, ask myself if the numbers have changed. For me, they wouldn't. Many of the triggers I read were variations of that and thus also failed.

I started coming up with dreams that would repeat, not so much like a recorder (not residual dreams lol) but where a specific theme or occurrence would show up. For example, on my way to class, knowing I have a big test, knowing that I haven't been there all semester, knowing that I'm probably up the crick! The scene is rarely the same, not always the same class, etc, but the theme is there.

The reason I've come up with for these dreams, I think, is because for many, many years I DID go to classes regularly. But then I stopped, well, finished. My brain got so used to that that it knows I now haven't been to class for a while and that gets worked into my subconsciousness as a "situation"

Brakes not working. I don't mean out of control but where I can't QUITE stop a vehicle and it keeps inching forward or back no matter how hard I press the break.

I have picked up on these triggers but failed to fully recognize them sometimes. In one case a trigger was happening and I declared to someone that it meant the person was dreaming! Another dream character said that I was right, but in spite of all that, I, myself, did not pick up on it and become lucid! So sometimes it's been hit and miss.

Like Rev, there are certain places that can do it as well. But these are not usually real places. My subconscious memories of certain places are so vivid that they can seem real even when awake so not as helpful. I repeatedly dream of some non-existent places and have come to realize that when I am there, I must be dreaming. These are not repeat dreams, either. More like all of a sudden things will start to look familiar, like if you walk into a city from the west and become familiar with that aspect, then one day you come in from the north and after a while of walking start to recognize things.

When this happens, most of the time now I can recognize this as a place from a previous dream. EVEN before becoming lucid I will think something like, I've been here before, it was in dream, was it this dream or from another night, wait…dream, I'm dreaming.

Falling doesn't usually end the dream, nor does it usually push me to lucidness, rather I usually start flying, or at least floating. There have been a few nightmarish ones where, as I start to fly, I try to convince myself it's a dream (next step would be recognition and then lucidity) Nope…it's not common but I've convinced myself that the situation is real a handful of times and have gotten that "this is it, it's over" feeling.

A few nightmares have turned lucid by virtue of the fact that one defense was to change the dream, even way back in my early days, this didn't _always_ result in becoming lucid, I just really thought I had super powers lol